Bucking a downtrend, National Aluminium Company (Nalco) has registered 23.6 per cent rise in bauxite mining in the April-September period of this fiscal.
Its alumina hydrate production was up 5.1 per cent at 9.68 lakh tonne, against the corresponding period of last year. During the period, the company produced 1.88 lakh tonne of aluminium, which is 4.2 per cent higher than the production of the corresponding period of 2015-16.
Nalco’s net power generation has gone up by 3.6 per cent at 2,945 million units as compared to the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. The state run aluminium company also generated 130 million units of wind power, marking an increase of 14.7 per cent compared to the corresponding figure of previous fiscal.
In terms of sales, Nalco has recorded stellar performance despite sluggish market conditions. Nalco’s alumina hydrate sales during HI of this fiscal, was up 8.5 per cent at 5.81 lakh tonne as compared to the first six months of 2015-16. During the period, the company sold 1.81 lakh tonne of aluminium, which is up 5.8 per cent compared to the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
Nalco had closed 2015-16 with a net profit of Rs 731 crore at a time when around 70 per cent of the aluminium companies in the world reported cash losses and took to capacity curtailments.
Union minister for coal, power & mining Piyush Goyal has asked Nalco to prepare a prospective future plan to raise its aluminium smelting capacity to two million tonne per annum from the present 4.6 lakh tonne. The allotment of Pottangi bauxite mines and Utkal D & E coal blocks in Odisha, besides recent bridge linkage from Coal India, would lead the company towards realization of this vision.
Nalco has set a Capital expenditure (Capex) target of Rs 1021 crore for 2016-17, which includes projects like development of Utkal D & E coal blocks, wind power projects of 50 MW each in Maharashtra and Rajasthan, addition of fifth stream in the existing alumina refinery at Damanjodi in Odisha, aluminium park at Angul, a 20 Mw solar power project in Madhya Pradesh and other expansion and modernization activities.
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